A Brief Fling with Taipei

My colleague who was leaving for Taiwan tempted me last week, with the prediction that Taipei's temperature over the weekend was in the region of a cool 20 degree celsius and below. Forces within my world were in a turmoil between visiting an Asian country *eeps!* and relaxing in a cool if not wintery weather *oooh!*. In the end, cool climate achieved a hairline win.

Since I joined colleague, her beau and two other guys at the last minute, my trip was dependant on the waiting list for a return flight on the 15th and was confirmed 2 days before I was due to fly. I went via EVA Air because all other airlines demanded my firstborn as payment for having the audacity to attempt a flight out during the public holiday, long weekend season.

Our departure times were the same, although it was sheer insanity that they wanted to meet at 10 in the morning when our flight was at 1.10pm. The only reason I met them this early was because I wanted to be the first one at the check-in queue, precisely 2 hours before flight time. I was determined to lay claim to the window seat by the emergency exit.

For those who mock me for demanding this 'luxury' on such a short flight, lemme pre-empt by saying I have always had passengers from hell sitting in front of me and by the time I landed, I would almost always, fight the strongest of urges to leave carcass trails from my homebase to the designated destination. Always. Every single time. Bad seat = Passengers from Hell In Front of Me.

We stayed at the Y which was smack in the centre of everything. There were 5 of us sharing the suite with an almost non-existent miniscule balcony so we could inhale our little cancer sticks, 5 in a straight row, with hardly any space to turn around. Taipei was everything I expected, smoggy, tonnes of main street with connecting alleyways, good food albeit laced with a localised flavour that takes some getting used to. Plenty of petite little women wearing either an asortment of layered tops, or lace in their apparrel including Tees and generally style genres that practically hollers "Kawai!! with a Victory sign close to lips".

We spent our paltry days doing the usual touristy route, sightsee, eat and shop. I think AT and I went into overdrive with the 铁蛋 (Literally translated: steel eggs. These are basically flavourful hard-boiled quail or chicken eggs infused with tea and sometimes flavoured with herbs and spices) and an assortment of 土产 (local delicacies). I went with a miniscule trolley luggage and came back with a 1mtr x 1mtr straw bag and a duffle. Most of the baggage I brought back contained edible foodstuff and stuff I generally can't get back home. Things like 2 tins of Instant Matcha with Milk, Green Bean flavoured Milk (don't mock it till you try it), Matcha Mochi Cake (Sakura too), half of Taipei's 铁蛋 production, 15 bowls of Beef Instant Noodles (w/ real beef in it!), some black sesame, 小米, and assorted crisy rice cracker, Candy shaped like a box of feminine product and a pack of cigarettes, 5 cutesy little danglies to hang on handphones (these tiny danglies are shaped like a segment of the bamboo with carved wishes on them, such as 和睦, 吉星高照, 避邪, 如意, 四季平安), 3 pairs of shoes, couple of cotton boxer shorts and 4 tops.

I had expected my experience with the Taiwanese to be pretty brusque but was pleasantly surprised that most were pretty affable, polite, had no bad breath nor body odours, generally helpful. The thing I did not expect was to be taken as a local and hence, I was not allowed the usual excuse that I was a tourist and didn't know better if I acted outtav the social Taiwanese norms.

I met quite a lot of locals who started rattling to me in slang Mandarin and Hokkien and since I understood most of it, I tried my best to reply in as succinct a Mandarin as I could muster. They seemed to understand me ok although I must admit I couldn't speak with the same fluency and speed as the locals. I didn't speak to them in English simply because I didn't want them to feel bad or get flustered and worse, feel inadequate when I fail to comprehend what they are saying in English (I found that to be the case on the rare occassions I resorted to English). Most of the locals will turn to stare whenever I spoke to my mates in English. They do the second glance and try to suss where we are from. Oft times, after they realise that they have been speaking to a non-taiwanese after half an hour, they compliment us on being able to speak Mandarin and Hokkien. Phew!

Generally, I did enjoy the food and shopping there but I must admit that to date, I have not had a chance to savour the 臭豆腐 simply because the smell seems to drive AT nuts.

I must say that I rather enjoyed the food street shopping in 乌来. Everything there was so aboriginal and ethnic. We trekked the mountain to see the waterfalls but what impressed me most was the clouds covering the mountain tops. The temperature and windchill required more than a Tee but I guess trekking helped to keep the body warm. AT and I were waiting for the guys to get back and we started to people watch. She couldn't get over how the ladies there wore heels and what must be their best dress to climb up a mountain. We even saw one that donned a mini skirt & heels but had a top with a sweater to boot. I was wondering if one wanted to protect their body, wouldn't they automatically keep legs and toes warm first tho? Their heels and skirts on a mountain don't really bug me much though. Difference in lifestyle / cultural experiences I guess?

I had to get up early today to catch my flight at 7.40am. Thank goodness too for I wasn't looking forward to the aspect of being stared at, trudging along with my embarrassingly enormous 1mtr x 1mtr straw bag, emblazoned with Winnie the Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore (Trust me, this was the best I could do from the shops in XiMenDing).

The flight back was a harrowing one nonetheless. Sometime during takeoff, the overhead cabins in the section in front of mine started oozing a brown liquid that flowed along the length of the cabins, ultimately dripping onto a few unsuspecting passengers. I was a little alarmed and pointed to the leaks just behind the aircrew sitting in front of me. As this was during takeoff, the air crew advised the passengers to remain in their seats till we were safely in the air. There was a frenzy as passengers started using what was available to them to contain the drips from the overhead cabins. This invariably turned out to be the little pillows and blankets some of them had requested earlier. The stench from the brown liquid was also getting a little nauseating. I wondered if this was where my final travel sojourn would end as thoughts of the last crash during a similar takeoff in Taiwan came to mind.

Strangely enough, the air crew seemed to think it was liquid from someone's luggage stored overhead. This seemed to be highly improbable for if it was a leak in someone's bag, it wouldn't have dripped only during takeoff. I started wondering if the air crew in EVA airlines were really equipped with adequate training. Anyways, the temporary measure then was for them to tape large absorbant paper towels over the spots where the leaks started.

They searched the overhead cabins and not surprisingly, didn't find any bag that was leaking nor a stench there. The same thing happened again upon landing and the drips again occurred in the same section, only this time from new spots. In the end, I think one of the senior staff offered passengers in the affected section, seats in the business class. Most of them shot off to these seats in a hurry even though they probably wouldn't get a chance to warm the seats from the time the plane touched down and taxied to the alloted space.

Hmmm... note to self, although EVA airlines didn't demand for my firstborn on this fully packed flight, staying alive to land in destination of choice might be an issue.

P.S. Pics to follow in later entries. Wanna catch a snooze after all that unpacking and laundry.